JAMAICA NEEDS MORE HOTEL ROOMS

Director of Tourism Paul Pennicook, says the island will need to add at least 3,300 hotel rooms, if it is to achieve its projected 10% increase in stopover arrivals in 2016. He noted that stopover arrivals grew by 3.6 % last year over 2013, adding that the projection for this year is 3%. “We are comfortable with that projection only because if it was more than that, frankly we would not be able toaccommodate them [stopover visitors],” he added. He was speaking at the Jamaica Invest Forum in Montego Bay last week. Pennicook told his audience that duringmeetings with representatives of several tour operators at the recent world’s largest trade travel show, ITB Berlin, “the constant comment was that we need more rooms, because they did not have enough rooms to sell in Jamaica during the winter period.